David Capes
So that childlike posture becomes a very important kind of guiding principle through the rest of the book, and that is going to be honored by God. Even if you’re a part of the elite and you’re that academic and you’re a part of the intelligentsia, you can still come before God with a humble heart, a contrite heart, and a childlike heart. That’s what I hear you saying we have to do.
Andrew Abernethy
Yes, and I know that you’ve probably been in a similar situation where some of those times of reading the scriptures before I actually received any training, are some of the sweetest times I had with God in the word. And then after receiving a lot of training, you realize you’re understanding a lot of this stuff, especially historically and literarily, a lot better. But then there’s a sense that maybe something’s missing, that there’s this engagement with God that is out of the picture. I think that this posture with which we approach the study of Scripture, whether you’re like you and I with PhDs or a grandmother who’s faithfully praying for her grandchildren or hasn’t had a chance to do formal education. She might actually be in a posture that could position her well to hear from the Lord. Whereas maybe folks like us might be more prone to feeling like leaning on their own understanding but might not be those who are truly grasping scripture.
And this brings us to a point that I think weaves its way throughout the book and that is, what’s the actual aim of reading scripture? And oftentimes the aim is positioned as well. Let me study this so I can explain it better, or so I could preach it to other people. And while I don’t want to dismiss that, the ultimate aim is to meet with God through Scripture. So, it keeps in view that there are greater aims in mind in reading Scripture than simply being able to have a better cognitive understanding. And we want there to be this encounter, this meeting with the Lord, where we’re truly knowing him more. And we need God to make that happen.
David Capes
That is a divine encounter, isn’t it? It’s initiated from heaven, that illumination that takes place. We might say the scripture is inspired, and we look at it that way, but we have to be spiritually illumined as we see that. And we can’t do that with a lot of pride on our heart. We can’t do that with an attitude that, you know, I’m the smart one in the room. Go back to Matthew. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Jesus said that’s the starting point of all. Let’s just quickly have a sentence or two from you about each of these steps. In a way, “posture” is a step, I suppose. In terms of action, the first thing is “flow”. What do you
mean by flow?
Andrew Abernethy
Let me just go back to “posture” first, and then we’ll go to flow. “Posture” could be part of the step-like action, beginning your time of studying God’s Word with prayer. It can be a very simple prayer, like father, I come to you. I need you to help me understand and to know this. Would you help me? You know, just a prayer like that is a great way to start. But then in step two, you get to “flow”. And what I have in mind with flow is recognizing that God had inspired the original human authors to write with a flow of thought.
We often think of the Bible as consisting of just individual verses that we can maybe pick out and say, this is my life verse. But instead, we will be learning to follow the flow of thought from the beginning to the end of a passage. Let’s say you’re in Ephesians 2:1-10. You don’t just jump directly to “we’re saved by grace through faith”, which is part of it. But that fits in a flow of thought that moves from us being dead in our trespasses to then in verses 4 and following, to be made alive in Christ. This being connected to the love of God, showing us His grace.
And then the whole passage ends with us being saved. Clarifying it’s not because of our works, but we’ve been saved to do good works and to walk in a new way of life. That is different from how we are walking while we are dead. So, there’s this overall movement, say, in Ephesians 2:10 from being dead and walking in the course of the world to being made alive in Christ by the love of God. And he’s done that in the final part of that passage to save us by grace, not works, but in order to do good works to walk in them. So, the aim of flow is to get at the flow of thought across a passage.
David Capes
There’s a lot of logic to that. It makes sense as we read it, from start to finish. One of the things I like about liturgical churches is they typically will read a whole passage, whereas sometimes in tradition you might have one or two verses that are disconnected from the flow. Then the whole sermon is built off that. I like the idea that sometimes you hear all of Ephesians 2 rather than just hearing Ephesians 2:8-9. What about “context”? There’s two sides of that, historical context and then book context.
Andrew Abernethy
Yes, so after you’ve got a feel for the flow of thought of a passage, you can situate it in its historical context just by asking three basic questions. When is this taking place? I have a timeline in the book. You try to put it there in a timeline. Okay, here’s where this is taking place. You can also ask, where is this taking place, just geographically. And then finally, you can ask, how does this fit within the culture of the time? One resource I recommend to people on the historical side of things is John Walton and Craig Keener, Cultural Background Study Bible. You know, you can pick that up and pick up cultural historical insights along the way.
David Capes
It’s a great resource and I turn to it often. I have one on my shelf not far from this desk. What about step four which is “whole Bible”?
Andrew Abernethy
After you’ve looked at the passage in its historical context and then situated it in its literary context as part of the book, you recognize that God’s given us a Bible that contains 66 books. A two Testament Bible that bears witness to Jesus. So, it’s stepping into that bigger story and asking how the passage fits into that. So that’s whole Bible. The Bible Project does a great job helping people see these interconnections across the whole of Scripture. So those are some resources to check out.
David Capes
So, The Bible Project is a good resource, and then [you have a chapter] “Savor God”. A word about that.
Andrew Abernethy
This relates back to what we’re saying about “posture” and the ultimate aim of reading scripture. I liken finishing your study at the end of step four to plating up a nice meal and walking away from it before you eat it. You’ve done the hard study in steps two, three, and four. Now it’s time to go back through and pray back through the passage, basking in who God’s showing himself to be. Ask God questions about what is confusing to you or does not line up with your own experience. Meet with God through this passage and savor him. So that’s step five.
David Capes
The last one is “faithful response”.
Andrew Abernethy
This is where you ask, what does it look like to respond to what God’s saying through this passage? Your listeners may appreciate how often we think about asking, what should I do as a result of this passage? But I think we should also learn to ask, what is this passage inviting me to see. Namely, how is this passage given me lenses for looking at the world differently, looking at who God is differently. Looking at who I am differently in light of what the scripture is saying about God. And you know, back to our Ephesians 2 example. It’s not like there’s a command in there to go do something, but it does challenge us. Are you willing to look at yourself and others as having been dead? Are you willing to see yourself as having been made alive and seated with Christ in the heavenly places? I mean, that’s an invitation to a whole new way of looking at life. Will we respond faithfully to that? Will we receive that?
David Capes
Well, it’s a terrific book. There’s more to it. It seems like it would be great for individual study or maybe even a group study, if a group wanted to tackle learning to read the Bible well for ourselves and for others. But it’s a great book. It’s called “Savoring Scripture: A Six-Step Guide to Studying the Bible.” Dr. Andy Abernethy, thanks for being with us today on “The Stone Chapel Podcast.”
Andrew Abernethy
David, it’s been a pleasure.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
